Monday, August 31, 2015

Happy Monday everyone, I'm prewriting this from last Friday (I know, no procrastination is crazy for me right!?), as you will currently find me on the shore of Lake Tahoe relaxing with my family. Yay for vacation!

These polishes are from the Hello Holo Customs group, which is an awesome Facebook group which hosts various indies and gives them the opportunity to create a custom chosen with inspiration from members of the group!

And special for y'all today, I have a shot of the makeup sponge I used, so you can get an idea of how I create gradients (sorry I'm not fancy enough for videos or action shots). To start this look I did two thin coats of Lanikai Sunrise (because it's lighter), waited a few minutes for it to dry and then went to work with the sponge. Basically I paint the colors on the sponge, and then place it on the nail and move in up and down, side to side motion. The up and down motion is to help blend the colors!

Don't get discouraged when doing this! I promise so many times I feel like I screw this process up when working on my gradients, but after the cleanup and the final look, it really does come together!

Saturday, August 29, 2015

I know there has been a whole lot of negativity in the nail polish world, all thanks to a bad seed in the mix. I am here to say I have been wearing indies almost exclusively on my nails for more than two years. I have had zero issues.

Indies are amazing, you get to know the actual people behind the beautiful polishes you get to sport on your nails. And guess what?! The makers are amazing people who give awesome personalized service and put all their heart behind their wonderfully run small businesses.

So today I've joined forces with some other blogger friends to spread the indie love and show to you some very trusted brands I have purchased from – so if you're ever wondering if you should order or not from a brand, check out some of these posts! This is a guide that will show you frequent indie purchasers and their most trusted indie brands!

So let's get to it – these don't include alllll the brands I've purchased from, but this definitely includes many of my top favorites that I purchase from again and again!

Now like I said, I purchase from many more brands than these, but I just wanted to make a decent sized list of some brands that I trust and have had good experiences with. So go, shop away and have a ball. These brands will take care of you!

And don't forget to check out the other ladies participating in this round robin of love!!!

Friday, August 28, 2015

Hey everyone, today I have two very special polishes to share with you from Great Lakes Lacquer.

*Press Samples*

This are the two September Limited Edition Polishes from Great Lakes Lacquer. And just like her Friends Pt. 1 collection, see partial review here, Mariah created the first polish with a very special lady in mind.

This is Great Lakes Lacquer Mother's Mauve, and you guessed it, it is inspired by Mariah's mom! Let's take a moment to see what she has to say about this beauty!

My Mom’s birthday is September. She’s a lady with a heart of gold; one of those ladies that is a Mom to everyone. All of my close friends have called her Mom and do to this day. This color is a dedication to her. In my teenage years, I remember her bedroom being an explosion in mauve. All tones of mauve. She tells me that it needs to lean more pink but this is the color I remember. See?Still Mom.

This polish is a lovely purple leaning mauve with beautiful golden shimmer and some very subtle scattered holo finish. The polish was on the thicker side, but not difficult to work with, this is opaque in two coats.

Ignore these bubbles, it was SUPER hot when I was swatching these, I blame the fan for this!

This next beauty if Great Lakes Lacquer Harvest Moon 2015: Come Reap, inspired by the season and apparently a book!

In traditional folklore, the Harvest Moon is the one that comes closest to the autumnal equinox. This year’s Harvest Moon lands on September 28th. In years of old, the light of the Harvest Moon illuminated fields so that farmers could continue harvesting that year’s bounty. It signified the reaping of hard work and a close to the growing season. A time of celebrating and a time of reflecting on what has been sewn, it is the end of one stage in nature and the beginning of another. For those of you who recognize the phrase in the name from a book, there will be more to come by next year’s Harvest Moon.
This is a lovely red jelly holo polish that leans just a bit orange in my opinion. Orange leaning reds are my absolute favorites and I looooooved this one to death. The polish is thicker in consistency, for best results I would wait a few minutes between coats. I do believe I needed 3 coats for opacity, but I bet most could get away with two.

Great Lakes Lacquer is available from their Etsy Shop Monday August 31 at 7 p.m. EST so that customers will have a chance to snag both August and September LEs in one purchase! How cool is that?!

So do either of these tickle your fancy?! I think I like the red slightly better, but only slightly! These are both beautiful!

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Hello everyone, today I have a new-to-me indie to share with you. Candace of DazzleGlaze recently contacted me and asked if I wanted to swatch one of her latest collections, and though I haven't previously ever tried DazzleGlaze before, I thought, why not?!

*Press Samples*

She sent me five polishes, creme and shimmer, which make up the DazzleGlaze Sailing Excursion Collection, which releases this Saturday. So let's get to the swatches shall we?

First up we have a beautiful teal shimmer, this is DazzleGlaze Sea Shanty. This is a gorgeous green leaning teal shimmer very subtle blue sparkle undertone. The formula was great, medium viscosity and opaque in two coats. And the super plus? I did not experience any staining, which is hard to come by when it comes to teal polishes!

This lovely red shimmer is DazzleGlaze Captain of the Catamaran. This color is a super happy red, with almost slightly pink undertones, like a rose red. The formula in this was also very similar to Sea Shanty, it was a medium viscosity and opaque in two coats. No staining.

This light blue polish is DazzleGlaze Blue Sky Marina and it is the ultimate sky colored blue (sorry that wasn't very creative). I put this on before looking at the name and I was all, 'wow, looks so much like the sky on a sunny day,' which is what I totally think the maker was going for! This was also opaque in two coats, with a medium viscosity formula. No problems with application.

And finally we have DazzleGlaze Between Wind & Water. This polish is complex with gorgeous hidden shimmer, unfortunately it just does not translate on to the nail. Check out the hidden shimmer in this bottle shot below.

So the shimmer is definitely in this polish, but once on the nail it is pretty undetectable. The formula was also a little difficult to work with. It was thick and did not self level well. It took three coats for opacity. For the best application I would wait a few minutes between coats.

This lovely blue is DazzleGlaze North Star Compass. This cobalt polish is more complex and has a gorgeous hidden blue and violet shimmer This was definitely one of my favorite polishes of the collection, besides the teal. This was more of a sheerer but thick formula, not difficult to make work, but took three coats to be opaque.

Overall I was pretty impressed with this brand and I would definitely check out some of this collection if it catches your eye. So dish with me, have you ever tried DazzleGlaze? Which of these five polishes is your favorite?!?

Monday, August 24, 2015

Hey you guys, I'm super slow today after my whirlwind weekend visiting family and friends in Southern California. I typically post first thing in the morning, so I'm feeling QUITE behind today.

Today I have an awesome polish to share with you! I was fortunate to meet Amy of Literary Lacquers this weekend. She was visiting Disneyland and we had a mini nail ladies gathering at Disneyland and it was SO MUCH fun!

And since Amy is so super kind, she gifted me a bottle of her limited edition birthday polish which she is releasing this weekend. And today just so happens to be Amy's birthday so I thought it would be totally appropriate if I shared it today!

Amy designed this polish as a small limited edition batch for her birthday and it is a gorgeous special sparkly pop on the nails. Titled "The Ultimate Answer," this polish was inspired by Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

Literary Lacquers The Ultimate Answer is a lovely sea foam green holo glitter polish. The polish is made up of various sized holo pieces in a light green jelly polish with lovely star holo glitter pieces as well. For my application I used two coats and then used an orange stick to help place the stars. Amy was well aware the stars are a heavier glitter so they tend to sink in the bottle. Place you bottle upside down before application and roll in your hands to help get the star pieces toward the top.

It wasn't too difficult to fish for the stars and I love how they can hide and be a hidden surprise or they could sit a top the lovely sea of green holo pieces.

For all the holo in this polish, it really isn't too thick or difficult to work with. Two coats lay on the nail quite nicely, but I did double top coat to smooth out the star glitter.

Word on the street is this limited edition polish will only be sold in the Literary Lacquers Etsy Shop August 28-30 (Friday through Sunday) and the bottles will be numbered. This is totally special and different for the Literary Lacquers brand. I love her because she always has her stock available in her shop and is conscious to how crazy releases can be and how they can hurt your pocketbook if you're worried the stock will run out!

Meeting Amy, her wife Elizabeth and Gaby of A Polished Lady was so so so much fun. We met up at Sephora at Downtown Disney, headed to dinner at Tortilla Jo's (later mistakenly called Tequila Jo's) and then Gaby was able to sign me in to the parks where we had a dance party at the Mad T Party at California Adventure and then caught the new Paint the Night parade at Disneyland and fit in a ride on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and The Haunted Mansion before closing down the park! It was a super fun time and I was so happy to get to meet girls in the nail world face to face!!!

Friday, August 21, 2015

Happy Friday everyone! Hope you all are expecting fantastic weekends ahead. I am headed down to Southern California later tonight to celebrate one of my closest friend's baby showers! So of course, as is expected from someone who is as big of a nail freak as I am, I did themed nails to go along with the shower!

As you see below, I did my nails to match the invites I created. I actually am quite proud of the invites. I am no graphic design genius or anything, but I found enough online free stuff to create the invitation from scratch. The theme of the baby shower is Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, so you just know I had to do matching nails.

The shower is for my best friend from high school and I am just so excited for her to have her first child. Well excited and a little jealous, cause I'm trying to have a baby too (keepin' it real!). Just hasn't happened yet. All in good time right?!

Let's get to the how-to of this post.

For the base I used two coats of Literary Lacquers Blue Lullaby, because not only was the name and color totally appropriate, I actually have a date to meet up with Amy of LitLaq because she just so happens to be visiting Disneyland while I am down in Orange County too! I'm so exited. I've never met anyone from the nail world before!!! ;-)

After the base, I knew I wanted some stars for sure, so I broke out my new MoYou London Festive 08 plate. This plate is actually Christmas themed, but had great stars so it worked perfectly. I used my yellow Jolie Polish stamping polish for the stars. Now because it's also a baby shower, I had the perfect umbrella which actually had a star on it on my BP-18 plate so I did that on my accent nail to top off the whole look and tie in the whole baby "shower" concept!

I think the whole look turned out great and it isn't exactly over the top baby shower so I totally love it! Can't wait to show it off at the shower tomorrow! Hope you all have fantastic weekends!